Dusty Roads
by DesertAvenger
Summary: Lea Wright lived a normal life in the Mojave. Until one fateful day changed it all. Now she has to live alongside a nigh stranger and adapt to her new life. This fic will be solely based on original characters, so if you're expecting some courier action, you'll be sorely disappointed.


Silence, the music of my life. The road, my world. My shadow, my only companion. This is the life I know now. The life I have known for many years now. Loneliness. It can drive men insane. Or it can harden their character. Either way, I am alone.

I pray to whatever god there's left that it takes pity on me and it grants me either a soul to accompany me, or my long overdue death. For I have cheated this grim mistress many times. And I feel I should no longer be walking these dusty roads.

This lonesome road. I hope it leads me to something.

 **-oOo-**

It wasn't very hard living in New Vegas nowadays. What with the NCR and that. But the war with the Legion has made them less concerned about the safety smaller settlements from small gangs and raider groups. Some got an easy life. Others a hard one. And some just got by.

Lea Wright was one of such people. She was young girl. Born to a family of traders, she had exceptional bartering skills and charisma. 19 years old, she had a small and lithe frame, she was fairly short, almost reaching 1.65 m. She had short dark blonde hair and blue eyes with fair skin. She also had piercings on both her ears, one on the right one, and three on the left one.

She worked the trading post in the small settlement of Greenville. A small town with about, 15 to 20 people. Founded not so long ago, about 20 years, and that's a lot of time by wasteland standards. Lea's parents played an important role in the founding of the town, establishing the trading post and solidifying them as a proper settlement. The town had as much of green as you would expect from the Mojave. Just a couple crops and a shrub here and there.

Working the trading post was a boring job. Mainly because no one came into the store. The only times it happened was when some farmer came to sell some crops or some person came in to buy beer or cigarettes.

And it wasn't much of a trading post either. Greenville was so far out from any main road or important town, that it didn't get many travelers or caravans. Just the usual lost guy asking for directions to the strip, or an unprepared caravan looking for supplies.

There was one guy though. He always came from the eastern road. He wore an old leather duster, a navy blue baseball cap with the letters LVPD stamped on the front, blue jeans and cowboy boots. Every time he came into the store he was wearing a red bandana and goggles. For some reason he always had his hands wrapped with what looked like bandages or boxing tape. The only thing he bought was food and any cigars they had. He always paid in caps, never traded nor bartered for any item. It made Lea wonder where he got the caps from.

He had a large backpack with a sleeping bag strapped to it. He also had a pristine short pump-action shotgun, a machete and a gas mask strapped to it too. He always liked to show off the shotgun. He sometimes cleaned it when he was around in the shop. He always did it over the telling of a story.

Because of his equipment Lea's original assumption was that he was, as many people in the wasteland, a nomad. That he didn't have a home, and wandered the wastes. But the fact that he was a somewhat regular customer disproved this idea.

Lea always made him tell her a story. He always talked about life down south, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, she could safely assume the man was a native from those parts because he had a slight southern accent. He also talked about the strip, the casinos, the "good ol' days", etc. But she never saw his face. And never could get a name out of him. The only thing close to a name she had to call him was "Sheriff", since he had a star pinned to a bandolier under his duster. She asked how he got it, but he always evaded the question with another story.

As soon as he concluded his business he left. Back east. He probably lived nearby. But it was too dangerous to venture outside of town, what with geckos and radscorpions and other dangerous critters roaming about, to look for his house and pay him a visit. So that remained a mystery.

Lea worked the store with her mom, since her father died before she was old enough to remember him. Her mother always described him as an honorable man, true to his word, and fair in his prices. She never did explain exactly how her father died, and never gave a reason as to why not.

The earnings from the store weren't much, but it was enough to subsist. Sometimes they even made a little bit more and could afford some better stock, but that was rare. This usually happened when a caravan passed by and traded basic supplies for rare merchandise.

Either way, life was good. Until one fateful day.

 **-oOo-**

It was almost the evening. The store was closing and Lea was already relaxing in bed. The bedroom was in a back room behind the counter. Her mom was working out front waiting for closing time.

Suddenly, gunshots started sounding outside. Lea sprung up from her bed and ran up front to the store. Only for her mom to tell her to go back and hide. Her mom pulled out a double-barreled shotgun from under the counter and waited.

Lea ran back to the back room and hid under her bed. She heard the door being kicked open and 5 gunshots, followed by one shot from her mom's shotgun and, shortly after, a body hitting the floor. She couldn't tell if the body was from their unknown assailant or, god forbid, her mother. Slow heavy footsteps and a low mad chuckle, confirmed her fears. Her mother was dead.

She was cowering in fear. Covering her mouth as to not make a sound and alert their assailant to her presence. It jumped over the counter and kicked open the door to the back room. She saw him. It was the very image of a raider. Dirty all over. A mohawk haircut. Tattoos all over his body. An armor made from pieces of scrap metal. And a mask made from a human skull.

He rummaged through the desk and the closet, and looked under her mother's bed. She knew it was only a matter of time until he found her. She prayed to whoever was listening that someone came to her aid.

At last he was standing in front of her bed. She was almost crying.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

He knelt down and saw her.

She immediately started swiping and kicking at him, but to no avail. He managed to get a hold of her arm and drag her halfway out from under the bed, then he put away his gun and grabbed her with both hands and dragged her all the way out.

She was laying back down against the hard wooden floor, and the raider positioned himself on top of her. He was laughing throughout the whole ordeal. She knew what was coming. She was going to do anything in her power to prevent it from happening.

She started punching him and pushing him away but it proved useless. He was laughing harder now. It seemed her display only amused him further.

He pushed her down by the neck. He came close to whisper something into her ear. She didn't listen. She didn't want to. Then he started laughing again. When he got closer, she grabbed his pistol, pulled it out and shot him four times in the stomach.

The raider straightened up. Lea shot him twice again in the chest and he fell backwards. She crawled away from his body and put her back against the wall, pointing the gun at the now deceased raider. After what seemed like an eternity she put the gun down and started sobbing. Then she wept.

For herself.

For her mom.

For her town.

For her now destroyed life.

 **-oOo-**

She didn't know how long she was inside the shop. There were no windows in the back room and the door was closed. No one came. Not the villagers, and not the raiders. It appeared as if everyone was gone.

Then she heard the front door of the store being slowly pushed open, and careful steps treading into the shop. She hurriedly scurried away from the door and sat down in the corner facing the door with the gun trained on it.

The person jumped over the counter. Her hands were shaking now.

When she heard the person take the firs footstep into the back of the shop, she looked off to the side and unloaded the gun at the door. When she looked back she saw the door was full of holes but she hadn't hit the intruder.

"GO AWAY!" Lea screamed, her voice cracking.

"Lea? Is that you?" asked a man.

"I SAID GO AWAY!" she repeated.

"Look, it's me, uhm… Sheriff was it? I can't quite remember the nickname you gave me" he responded. "Look, I'm not gonna hurt ya."

"How can I know that's true? How can I be sure you're not here to kill me and loot the place?" Lea asked.

"I'm throwing in my weapons so you can be sure I can't harm ya" he replied.

"Ok" she said hesitantly.

The man then proceeded to throw in a shotgun, a machete, a revolver and a knife.

"There, that's everything" he said. "I'm coming in now, don't shoot me" he added.

He walked in slowly, with his hands in the air. He was still wearing his bandana and goggles. With one hand he removed both. He had a weathered complexion, with a couple of wrinkles on his forehead, brow and around his mouth and eyes. He had a light brown goatee that spread a little bit to the sides and also had a fair amount grey hairs on it. He also had short hair visible under his hat.

But the most distinguishable feature of his face was that he was wearing an eyepatch, with a long scar running underneath it. One lonely green eye looked back at her.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

She didn't respond. She just dropped the gun and started sobbing. After a couple seconds she could feel his arms wrap around her in a hug and him whispering "It's gonna be okay". She just buried her face in his chest and started crying. She stayed like that for what seemed like hours.

 **-oOo-**

"Hey, that's a nice gun. Can I borrow it for a bit?" Sheriff asked.

"I don't know, ask him" Lea said nodding in the direction of the raider's corpse.

"Oh-kay…" said Sheriff.

He picked up the gun from the floor and examined it a little bit.

"It's one helluva gun this one. At least when it comes to durability" he said. "It's a TT-33 Tokarev. Russian made, so you know it's durable. Too bad you can't get any ammo for it. It's a shame since it's in such good condition" he said as he picked up one of the cartridges from the floor.

"Boo-hoo" said Lea unenthusiastically.

"Wait a second…" he said as he inspected the cartridge at a closer distance. "This is .45 ACP caliber!" He chambered the empty cartridge onto the gun and stared wide-eyed at it. "Someone did some heavy modding to this gun so it chambers .45! This is amazing! I gotta meet the guy who made this" he rambled excitedly.

"Yay" said Lea unenthusiastically, again. She couldn't really relate to the man's joy. Nor did she feel like doing so.

"I happen to have some of those lying around" Sheriff said as he dug around his backpack. He produced a box of bullets and started loading the magazine with them. He also pulled three more magazines from the raider's corpse. One half full and two empty.

After loading the magazines he proceeded to clean the gun. Being in a raider's care the gun was dirty, but not rusted or damaged in any way, so he assumed it was recently acquired. After finishing up he handed over the gun to Lea.

"Here" he said offering the weapon to her. "You saw it first. It's yours to keep" he added.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, you're gonna need something to protect yourself, ain'tcha?"

He also gave her the magazines and the spare bullets.

He suddenly froze on the spot for no apparent reason.

"We gotta go" Sheriff said.

"What? Why?" asked Lea.

Then Lea heard the yelling and laughing of a group of people.

"More raiders are coming, that last gang was only one of the groups that had their eyes on the town. Now that the village is empty, it's gonna be a cakewalk for them to loot the place, and overpower us" Sheriff answered. "Grab anything useful and let's get going" he said, picking up his things and putting on his mask.

Lea grabbed the gun Sheriff had given her, plus the magazines. She unlocked the safe under the bed and emptied the contents inside a backpack. She grabbed a leather jacket, a hat and a dark purple bandana and put them on. She took other miscellaneous items with her, ranging from gifts from her mother to other kind of mementos.

Sheriff was crouched down by the door with his revolver out waiting for her. She tapped him once in the shoulder to let him know she was ready. He nodded once and opened up the door slowly checking every angle. The coast was clear.

Until a raider kicked down the door. Sheriff immediately dropped behind the counter grabbing Lea by the arm and dragging her down. He put his gun away and pulled out his knife. It was a bayonet kept in perfect condition, with the blade shiny and the handle made from what looked like black horn. He grabbed it with the blade pointing down.

The raider was busy rummaging through the shelves and looting anything of value. Sheriff grabbed a can from the counter and threw it into the back room. The raider's head immediately snapped to attention, and he proceeded slowly towards the counter, gun raised.

When he was in front of Sheriff across the counter, Sheriff jumped up, swatted away the gun with his forearm and punched the raider in the face with the hand in which he had his knife. Lea could hear the sound of the raider's nose breaking, and she saw a piece of tooth fly out.

Sheriff then grabbed the raider by the neck and pulled him closer. Covering the raider's mouth, he cut his throat. He kept holding him until he stopped moving and then dropped him. He took a moment to loot the raider's corpse and take some items from the shelves.

Lea then noticed her mother's body. It was against the corner with the shotgun sitting on her lap. She started sobbing. Sheriff rushed to her side and put an arm on her shoulders.

"Hey, hey, don't cry" he said softly. "I know she's gone, and it's painful, believe me I know. And I don't wanna be an asshole, but I need you focused right now" he added.

Lea wiped away the tears with her hand and looked one more time at her mom. She then grabbed the shotgun laying on her mother's lap. Lea's mother said it was her grandfather's gun and told her that Lea's grand-grandfather used to say that one time he used it to kill a deathclaw. The gun itself was in pretty good condition as it was barely used. Lea made a promise to herself to come back and bury her mother no matter what.

After this short moment both of them headed for the front door. Sheriff stopped and cracked open the door enough to see outside, but not enough to be seen. He took count of the raiders outside and their position and turned to face Lea.

"There are 5 raiders outside. 2 on patrol and 3 each guarding a different building" he said. "We might be able to slip by unnoticed if we're careful enough" he added.

Lea nodded. Sheriff took her hand, unsheathed his knife and opened the door. He counted down from three with his fingers while holding the knife and then they both exited the store. They made a turn on the first corner to the back of the buildings and proceeded through there.

They were making their way without any interruptions until a raider came out from in between one of the buildings. Sheriff let go of Lea's hand and sprinted toward the raider. He swatted the raider's gun away and stuck his knife up to the hilt through the raider's jaw into his brain. When the raider went limp, Sheriff pulled out the knife. He went back and took Lea's hand again and moved forward.

They made it to the end of the row of buildings. Freedom was just a small sprint through a courtyard guarded by two raiders. Sheriff turned around to face Lea.

"Ok, so here's the plan. You stick to my back, grab my bag just be sure, and don't let go" he said. "Then I'll run out, shoot both raiders and we'll run for our fucking lives" he explained. "They probably won't chase us long since they have a whole town to loot" he concluded.

Lea nodded once. She overlooked the tactlessness of Sheriff for mentioning the "whole town to loot" which used to be her home. But she agreed to his plan nonetheless. It's not as if she could come up with anything better.

Once Sheriff made sure Lea was holding on tight to his backpack, he pulled out his revolver and counted down from three with his left hand and started his sprint. He aimed at the first raider and shot him right in his head before he had time to react. The second one could barely react before he was put down by a shot in the neck. He fell down choking in his own blood. It was pretty impressive he could shoot so accurately while sprinting. Sheriff put away his gun, picked up Lea in his arms and ran like a pack of deathclaws were at his heels.

Some raiders chased them, but after a short stretch they desisted. After some more running, Sheriff stopped and put Lea down. He was panting and coughing trying to regain his breath. This took several minutes and some water to do so.

 **-oOo-**

It was already dusk. The sky was a deep orange color. Lea and Sheriff were far away from the town now, they were heading east. Their trip would've been shorter had they come out of the east road of the town, so now they had to go around giving wide berth the town.

"Where are we going again?" Lea asked, tiredness palpable in her voice.

"I said it's a surprise" Sheriff answered.

"I'm tired, I don't care for your shit, Sheriff" Lea said, annoyed by the man's secrecy. "What's your name anyway? I've been calling you Sheriff for as long as I've known you" she added. "And as nice as that nickname is, I'd like to know the name of the man leading me to who knows where" she ended.

"Fair enough" Sheriff replied. "My name is Jonah Porther, you can call me Jon if you want" he added.

"So," Lea made a short pause "Jonah, where are you from?" She asked.

"I'm from Two-Sun, Arizona, down south" he answered.

"Got any family?" she followed up.

"Dead, possibly" Jonah replied nonchalantly.

"Sorry for asking" Lea replied apologetically.

"It's ok, you eventually come to terms with it" he said. "Besides, they've, possibly, been dead for years now. So it's fine" he added.

"What do you mean 'possibly'?" Lea asked.

"It's a long story, but in short it means I'm not a hundred percent sure they're dead" Jonah answered. "The circumstances of their demises were sort of, dubious, so there's a chance at least one of them is alive. But I don't get my hopes up. There's no way I would even recognize them probably, or they would recognize me" he added with a sigh. "Oh and they were, or maybe, are, my mother and brother, I never knew my father" he ended.

"Well, we have something in common, I never knew my father either, he died before I had the ability of remembering him" Lea explained. "But my mom always told me he was a great man" she added.

"Well, according to my mother, he was the complete opposite. A shitty husband, and shitty person all around. She left him when me and my brother were born. Said he wasn't fit to be a parent" Jonah said.

Lea stayed silent for a minute, then she spoke again. "You said they were probably dead for years now, so…" she paused. "Exactly how old are you?" she asked.

"Well…" Jonah paused for a minute, muttering under his breath. "About 45 years old" he answered.

"Damn, you're old" she said surprised.

"Thanks" Jonah deadpanned.

"I mean, I don't say it's a bad thing, I mean with your lifestyle of wandering, it's impressive you've stayed alive this long" Lea said. "It also means you have experience doing, you know, stuff…" she added.

"Is that a suggestion?" Jonah asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't mean it _that_ way! God! Get your mind out of the gutter!" she yelled at him. Jonah just laughed.

"Of course, I was just joking" he said chuckling. "Besides, you couldn't handle my 'experience'" he added. Lea just punched him in the shoulder.

"You're too old for me anyway" she commented. "Maybe if you lost 20 years or so…" she added looking him up and down.

"You say that now…" he said. "I'm full of surprises."

"Anyway, I meant that you have experience in survival, combat and stuff like that" she said.

"Of course" he replied. "Been alone on the road for 20 years now. I'm bound to have picked some things up". He stopped, putting an arm in front of Lea. "We're here" They were in front of a small trail that went up a hill. There was nothing special about it. It was just a small and narrow dirt path.

They started ascending trough the path.

 **-oOo-**

It took them about an hour, but finally, they reached their destination. They were in front of a small shack. It had wooden walls and a metal roof. It had a couple of windows, most of them had cracked glass panes. There was a lawn chair out front, with a small round table beside it. The table had an ashtray and an empty beer bottle on it. To one side of the shack was a small generator with some crates beside it.

Besides all of that. There wasn't anything noteworthy about the place. It was just a plain old shack. Jonah headed for the door and held it open for Lea. She went inside the house. It was dark. Then Jonah turned on the lights. Well, "light" would be more appropriate since there was only one lightbulb in the middle of the room suspended from a beam on the ceiling.

She could now see the contents of the room. There was a bed against one of the corners, diagonally right from the door. It didn't have any sheets but the mattress was clean at least. At the foot of the bed there was an armchair. On the left opposing corner from the bed was a workbench. It had a tool rack above it, and some drawers underneath it. It was just a normal workbench.

Between the bed and the workbench there was a metal stove. It had a pipe coming out of it that went up to the ceiling. There were some pots and plates on top of it. There were some shelves with different jars and bottles on them. Next to the stove there was a fridge.

In the middle was a round table with four chair around it. There was an empty glass and a bottle of whiskey on top of it. There was also an ashtray with a half-consumed cigar on it. There was a bookshelf with some books on it, a couple closets, some boxes, and strangely enough a filing cabinet against the walls.

"Mi casa es tu casa" said Jonah opening his arms.

"It's cozy. I guess" Lea said while looking around.

"You'll be sleeping on the bed, I'll just take the chair" he said. "I'll be making dinner in a bit so get settled in. We'll be her for a while" he added.

She went over to the bed and sat down on it. She threw her backpack and jacket beside her. Jonah just started clearing out the stove to start cooking. Lea got up from the bed and went over to the bookshelf.

There weren't many books on it per se, plus some of them were just technical manuals. Few of them were actually literature. She guessed Jonah wasn't very fond of reading as a recreational activity. She picked out a random novel and sat down on the bed with it.

After some time, Jonah was done with the food and they sat down on the small table and had dinner. Lea took this opportunity to learn more about her host.

"So" she said to call Jonah's attention. "What was your brother like?" she asked. "If you don't mind me asking" she added.

"Not at all" he said. "We were really alike. We rarely argued with each other, we mostly agreed on everything" he answered. "The only thing we fought over was… Well… What makes every man fight with his equal" he added.

"What? Money?" she asked.

"Women" he stated.

"Oh" she simply replied.

"But beside that, we were really close together" he continued. "We lived together and worked together. Well, until he was gone" he finished. He seemed a little downcast after that, so she thought she wouldn't press him further.

They finished their meal in silence. Lea helped pick up the plates and after that she went and lied down on the bed. Jonah turned off the light and sat down on the armchair.

"Good night" he said.

"Good night" she replied.

In the dark and quiet she started sobbing. The events of the whole day dawned on her at once. Up until now she was distracted with other matters, but now that everything was quiet, there was no escaping it. Her life as she knew it was gone. Everything she knew was gone. Her home. Her only family. Everything. She was going to have to start over with this nigh total stranger.

As she sobbed, she felt Jonah sitting beside her lying form and placing a hand on her. He started stroking her shoulder and saying "Everything's gonna be fine". She cried. The words were soothing enough that she felt she could let her guard down.

At some point she fell asleep. Her mind and body completely drained from the events of the day.

 **-oOo-**

Author's notes:

After this dreadful day, what awaits our young heroine? Who knows. I'm sure I don't.

I still don't have a clear direction for the story, so I'll write things as I come up with them, so maybe at times it might seem a bit wonky, so please do let me know if you find any continuity errors or any kind of error really. It'd be much appreciated. Also don't be surprised if I ever discontinue this story. It's really common that I just drop a project at any time.

Anyway, tell me what you think. Any critique is welcome.


End file.
